Berserk: I've learned alot from this series. Some of those things have made my outlook on life the way it is today. Whether or not that's a good thing or not is also up for debate but in the end it all comes down to one thing: Fight on and never give up even if fate itself is your enemy. Struggle through all hardships and never give in and lose sight of your goals and never show weakness to your enemy.

Neon Genesis Evangelion: No matter how hard you try to run away, you can never face anything or hope to accomplish anything in life by being alone. You can never hope to run away and be alone, you need people in your life, whether for good or for bad, its just the way it is.

Happy Lesson: When it comes down to it. Family may not even be about just blood, but rather about those who are willing to stand by you and show you true love and kindness when you need it

Anime has inspired me in so many ways, I think is what really bonded me with some of my childhood friends, because we took anime to a level that would not be considered ... just being a fan of anime (whether casual, otaku, weeaboo, elite, etc.)

I think all the CLASSICS that we all know and love has taught me a lot about myself over the years, and it is so great to be able to have the opportunity here to share this! :3 However, there is a lot of backstory, and evolution that came about during a number of years leading to my current self.

It all really hit the nail exactly on the year 2000. Not that I was not watching anime during the 90's, BUT, I haven't discovered anime to its fullest satisfaction until entering into the 2000's, where I was introduced to the Mai-Series, Slayers, Ranma, Magic Knight Rayearth, and many other great classics of that era.

However, I did not see the light back then, and I believe that had a lot to do with development and such. I always found myself FOR THE LONGEST TIME drawn to characters that had a more darker/despairing/depressing aura about them. I think this came about because I've struggled for so many years with an inability to tap into a true sense of self-confidence.

So naturally I would find myself appealed to characters that had some form of dark background. Mikoto is ultimately what I was in personality. I can relate with her on so many levels of philosophical thinking, and can find connections between myself and her on so many levels it's actually borderline scary.

Mikoto has a slight co-dependency on Mai, which is actually a normal thing for that age. I too had a co-dependency on childhood friends back then because I did not have real self-security and self-worth, and needed to get my confidence through "acceptance." I feel that this is the case with Mikoto as well. Even when she and Mai split off for that duration past the half-way point of the Mai-HiME anime, she couldn't even eat her brothers ramen due to the despair she was feeling from being separated from Mai.

I kind of view Mikoto now as a former self. Kind of like an Alter-Ego in that sense. Today, I have learned to channel dependency inwardly from my own strength and abilities, and have no need of a fan-base to approve of my self-worth.

Mikoto has taught me many things though. She has taught me the importance and value of friendship that I seldom get from many other characters. Sailor Moon is another series that has this emphasis on me.

However, I have discovered over the years that true friendship is rare, and difficult to find. I think many of us truly want to have one close friendship at least that becomes a compatibility and connection that cannot be found anywhere else. Unfortunately, I have not been able to obtain this compatibility with anyone due to undeveloped character-traits... and have kind of missed out on what it means to be youth.

I can relate with every area of Mikoto's emotion, whether happy and excited or negative and despaired. She is a special character to me. But I have evolved quite a bit since.

Sailor Moon has taught me a lot. The first thing it did for me was want me to be apart of a group setting. The Sailor Guardians (inner) would always find themselves doing group study sessions. These looked kind of fun to me. I've been in these settings of course, but they were more geared toward anime binging with gaming intermissions.

Ami Mizuno (who is my favorite character in SM) really gave me a confidence and ... a wake up call ... to apply sensibility to my life, and to really just care about my academic contribution to the world around me. I lived most of my life like Usagi Tsukino prior to really caring about the importance I've learned from Ami. The things that made me a lot like Usagi in the past were procrastination, always day-dreaming about anime, poor grades because of lack of studying, detention, sleeping in. Which DO NOT outweigh Usagi's good qualities at all, but these were areas in my life that really contributed to quite a few years of feeling underachieved, and unfortunately, unlike Usagi, I was not able to turn to becoming a Champion of Love and Justice to gain self-worth through that. That's honestly how it was for me when I started off in the school systems. Sailor Moon teaches so much about life, and I think just about anyone can connect themselves with any one of the Sailor Guardian personalities, (inner and outer), so Sailor Moon is definitely a go-to series to help one get familiar with her sense of self based on her personality/character type. :D

When it comes to Slayers, I was really a lot like Zelgadis, and still am, actually. I was in a friendship with a Lina Inverse type, and it was basically just one demoralizing tease after the other. This kind of happens a lot even today within the classroom setting. I note it as being humorous, and it's always an image of Zel that comes to my mind whenever this moment happens! XD

Today I am adopting more confidence that is visible through characters like Lina, Amelia, and Hikaru Shido from Magic Knight Rayearth. I am getting a little less shy, and a lot more bold. Though sometimes the shyness weakens my wit a little. That is why I still heart a mix of different character personalities in anime. Ami to Hikaru for instance.

I lived most of my life believing that if you adopted personalities from characters that did not match your personality type that you were becoming a poser to that personality type. But as someone who is able to adapt, like a Chemelian :3. I have been able to change and mold my personality in ways that do not take away from any of my mainstream personality or identity. It's just an ability to adapt easily to environment.

Today I would think that the biggest thing that I've ever learned from anime is the Eastern Wisdom that is presented in it over and over which is mainly just Belief in Self, and Harnessing Confidence. I am the type now that will bank my confidence in a 1% chance success-rate even if the remaining 99% stacks against me!